Guerrilla warfare

Ingush policemen suffered further losses

Yesterday in the Ingush village of Alkhasty, policemen killed by militants were buried. The senior investigator of the Sunzhensky District Department of Internal Affairs, Shakhangirei Tsechoyev, and the former criminal investigation officer, Rustam Belkhoroev, were shot at night in their own homes. Almost all residents of the village of Alkhasty, as well as hundreds of police officers and ordinary people who arrived from the surrounding settlements of the region and Ingushetia, took part in the funeral ceremony. The murder of a former and current law enforcement officer in Ingushetia became the next link in a series of attempts on the lives of security forces not only in this republic, but throughout the entire North Caucasus region. The most notorious of the recent terrorist attacks was the assassination attempt on the prosecutor of the Nazran region, committed on August 10. Then, a grenade that exploded in the courtyard of the house killed the prosecutor’s younger brother and injured 13 other people. Ordinary attacks on police posts and vehicles occur in Ingushetia almost every day. And, as a rule, it is not possible to apprehend bandits without delay.

The last emergency occurred on Sunday night, at about three o’clock, almost in the center of Alkhasty. The houses of the dead stood on the main street of the village, not far from each other. As a Vremya Novostei correspondent was told at the Sunzhensky District Department of Internal Affairs, unknown persons first tried to enter the house of the senior investigator of the investigation department of this district police department, Shakhangirei Tsechoyev. A short firefight ensued. “Tsechoyev began to shoot back out of despair and, according to his wife, even wounded someone with his service weapon,” said one of the policemen. However, Tsechoev failed to fight back. The bandits shot the 44-year-old man right in front of his family and then burned the house. And literally ten minutes later, bandits broke into the house of the former criminal investigation officer of the ROVD Rustam Belkhoroev. The terrorists carried out reprisals against him, shooting a policeman, burning the house and the car parked in the yard, after which they disappeared. Eyewitnesses of these crimes - relatives of the killed policemen who were lucky enough to survive - said that there were 10-15 attackers. Taking the wounded man with them, the bandits disappeared into the forest.

Police officers and employees of the district prosecutor's office who arrived at the crime scene first fought the fire together with firefighters and only then began the investigation. The prosecutor's office opened a criminal case under three articles at once - murder, encroachment on the lives of law enforcement officers, as well as illegal storage and carrying of weapons.

Simultaneously with the funeral, yesterday in the Sunzhensky district of Ingushetia, events were carried out all day according to the special police plan “Vulcan-5”. The police, with the support of riot police, were combing the nearby forest, where, according to available information, the bandits had disappeared. However, there were no reports of the discovery of the gang yesterday during the day.

Yesterday's attack on law enforcement officers in the village of Alkhasty was the fifth since the beginning of the month in Ingushetia. Criminals, as a rule, under the cover of darkness, fire at or throw grenades at police posts or the houses of internal affairs officers. In fact, a real “guerrilla war” against security forces began in Ingushetia. And it seems that so far the score is not in favor of law enforcement officers - bandits often manage to remain unpunished. The law enforcement agencies of the republic do not rule out that the actions of the militants are revenge for Shamil Basayev, the leader of the militants, the so-called number one terrorist, who was killed a month ago in Ingushetia. After his death and in connection with the information that appeared about possible acts of revenge, an enhanced duty regime for police officers was introduced in the republic twice, the last of which was lifted only on August 13.

Eduard LOMOVTSEV